3.5 Ways To Show Stored Procedure Code In SQL Server 2005

There are four (more on that later) ways in SQL Server 2005 to get the create procedure script. Why does the title say 3.5, well that is because the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ROUTINES view only returns the first 4000 characters. So if your proc is 5000 characters then you are out of luck (not really since you can use the other 3 methods)

So let’s start, we will be using the uspGetBillOfMaterials stored procedure in the AdventureWorks database

sp_helptext
This is the same as in SQL server 2000 nothing new here

sp_helptext 'dbo.uspGetBillOfMaterials'



sys.sql_modules
So this is a new view in SQL Server 2005, what we need is the definition column

SELECT definition
FROM sys.sql_modules
WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID('dbo.uspGetBillOfMaterials')



OBJECT_DEFINITION()
This is a new function in SQL Server 2005, just combine it with OBJECT_ID to get the proc code back

SELECT OBJECT_DEFINITION (OBJECT_ID('dbo.uspGetBillOfMaterials'))



INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ROUTINES
This is the problematic one, if the ROUTINE_DEFINITION is greater than 4000 characters then it will be truncated

SELECT ROUTINE_DEFINITION
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ROUTINES
WHERE SPECIFIC_NAME ='uspGetBillOfMaterials'
AND SPECIFIC_SCHEMA= 'dbo'